Generally, objects for search, such as files, are classified and stored according to kinds of the objects, if they are large in number, and the operation of searching a desired one out of the objects is manually performed.
In hospitals, for example, objects for search, e.g., files in which individual charts for patients are kept are classified and arranged on shelves in alphabetical or the like order, and operations of taking out charts from the shelves and returning them to their original locations on the shelves are usually carried out by manual work.
Hitherto, there have been known location search apparatuses for search of medical chart locations of the type designed to enable more rapid and more accurate performance of such manual chart take-out operation, such that, as FIG. 7 illustrates by way of example, compartments 13a on a shelf 7a for accommodation of charts 4a therein are individually equipped with lamp indicators 14a so that only the lamp of a particular compartment 13a in which the chart 4a desired to be taken out is kept can be lit.
The use of such location search apparatus permits easy finding of the particular compartment 13a in which the desired chart is kept, it being thus possible to know the location of the chart 4a by the block or class to which the chart 4a belongs. Such location search apparatus for search of files and the like is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Pblication No. 63-9592.
In practice, however, the foregoing location search apparatus has involved various problems as follows:
(1) While the location of each block of charts stored can easily be spotted because each compartment 13a is equipped with a lamp indicator 14a, manual operation is required to locate any particular chart 4a from among the block of charts, which is very troublesome and time-consuming. PA1 (2) Since the location for each individual chart 4a is designated by a particular compartment 13a therefor, care must be used to ensure that the chart 4a, if taken out from the compartment 13a, be returned to its original location, i.e., same compartment 13a on same shelf 7a, when it is to be shelved again; as such, the operation of returning the chart 4a to its original location is very troublesome unless individual blocks of charts are clearly defined under clearcut classifications. PA1 (3) Therefore, where the total number of charts 4a is large, the charts 4a accommodated in each individual compartment 13a are naturally large in number, which makes chart taking-out/taking-in operations troublesome all the more. PA1 (4) Furthermore, such known location-search apparatus has a fatal difficulty that if a chart 4a is erroneously placed in a wrong compartment 13a instead of being returned to a specified compartment 13a for the chart on a specified shelf 7a, the chart 4a cannot be fetched when it is needed again, because location search is carried out on a block by block basis. PA1 (5) In such location search apparatus, therefore, it is always required that any chart, if taken out from its location, must be, after use, returned to the compartment 13a in which it was originally kept.
For these reasons, such known location-search apparatus leaves much yet to be desired for use in such searching operations for medical charts as illustrated above by way of example. True, no satisfactory search apparatus has been developed which can be reliably employed in the search of a particular object desired to be fetched.